Saturday, September 05, 2009

As you may have noticed with recent Mad Men & Project Runway posts I've become enamored of references to movies in other mediums. I thought I'd share them as they occur to me. On that note, I recently picked up Dennis Lehane's mystery thriller Shutter Island which is set in the 50s on an island for the criminally insane. Figured I had time to read it before the movie version arrives given its abrupt move to February 2010. The jacket blurb claims that it's "instantly cinematic" and for once the blurb ain't shamelessly overstating. Not only does the book read like a zippy movie-movie, it mentions movies, too. Here's one example.

page 168... Rachel Solando (to be played by Emily Mortimer) and Teddy Daniels (to be played by Leonardo DiCaprio) meet. This is not a spoiler ~ please DO NOT post spoilers in the comments!

"Are you accusing me of being a Communist?" Her back came off the pillows and she bunched the sheet in her fists...

"A Communist, ma'am? You? What man in his right mind would think that? You're as American as Betty Grable. Only a blind man could miss that."

She unclenched one hand from the sheet, rubbed her kneecap with it. "But I don't look like Betty Grable."

"Only in your obvious patriotism. No, I'd say you look more like Teresa Wright, ma'am. What was that one she did with Joseph Cotton, ten-twelve years ago?"

That'd be Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt and if Hitch' were alive, he might've wanted to adapt Shutter Island himself. I giggled at the patriotism line and hoped it made it into the screenplay. Then I thought 'Does Emily Mortimer look anything like Teresa Wright?'

This was an enjoyable read, and I am looking forward to the movie. I'm not sure the ending will work that well on screen, but anything with Scorsese and DiCaprio teaming up would get me into the theater.

I loved the book and was super-stoked to see the dream team of Leo and Scorcese, but then they pushed it back. *sigh*

Anyways, the book is quite riveting and a big ol' page-turner. By the looks of the trailer, the movie stays quite faithful to the book, but i won't be surprised if they change some things around. and after reading the book, i notice that the trailer is quite spoilery. yikes. It gives a good amount away like THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE did in its trailer.

But i hope SHUTTER turns out better than TTTW tough. TTTW had the decent leads, but it was like a Cliffs Notes version which wimped out on the ending. I can see how people who didn't read the book were very confused.

I'm so intrigued to see how Scorsese handles the twist. I read Shutter Island last month and started on a Lehane kick. As much as I enjoyed "Gone Baby Gone," I think Ben Affleck made a big mistake jumping into the middle of the Kenzie/Gennaro series. If ever there was potential for a smart, thoughtful franchise this was it. I would love to see him or someone work through the earlier novels in the series. I have read "A Drink Before the War" and "Sacred" and both have great cinematic potential.

I think the ending was changed a little, if only in a way that makes it oddly poignant, at least according to some script stuff I've read. I won't give anything away though. I think from what I keep hearing -- which is bits and pieces of tweets -- from some people who claim to have seen it already (and, yes, quote whore Peter Travers is among them -- he loved it and has been excoriating Paramount for releasing crap but not this) that it is really, really good. I just think Paramount didn't want anything to get in the way of their most obvious crowd (and, by extension, Academy member) pleaser, Up in the Air. I wouldn't put it past them to move this again, btw. Anyhow, if DiCaprio is as good in this as is being broadcast and good in Inception, which has an opportunity to be a hit, it might be his year at the movies again.